Under the Covers of Online Dating

Author of New Book Explains the Math, Psychology and Business Models of 'Social Discovery'

By

Willa Plank

Feb. 13, 2013 10:41 p.m. ET

A decade ago, online dating carried a social stigma: If you met your match on the Web, you probably didn't tell your friends. But these days digital dating is more widely accepted (unless your name is Manti Te'o), as millions of people try to find their mates on popular sites from eHarmony Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s OkCupid and Match.com.

The transformation of a once-taboo market into a multibillion-dollar industry is the subject of a new book by Dan Slater. In "Love in the Time of Algorithms," the former...